'Epic' Wildfire Explodes In Colorado : The Two-WayIn Colorado Springs, firefighters are in "triage" mode. They're passing by some homes they don't think can be saved to get to others they may be able to keep from burning. Dry conditions, hot temperatures and strong winds are fanning the flames.

Flames from the Waldo Canyon Fire glowed on the western side of Colorado Springs, Colo., Tuesday night.
Bryan Oller/AP
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Bryan Oller/AP

Flames from the Waldo Canyon Fire glowed on the western side of Colorado Springs, Colo., Tuesday night.

Bryan Oller/AP

"A firestorm of epic proportions" continues to threaten Colorado Springs, Colo., as more than 1,000 firefighters battle flames that by midday had forced more than 26,000 people to flee their homes.

It was local Fire Chief Rich Brown who called the inferno epic Tuesday night. Today, Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said it's an event "that is certainly unprecedented in this city," The Denver Post reports.

— The U.S. Air Force Academy's "Waldo Canyon Fire" updates. There is "an evacuation order for all residents in Pine Valley and Douglass Valley housing on the Air Force Academy."

And early this afternoon, Colorado Springs' The Gazette warned that "Wednesday's weather is expected to be worse than the eastward flowing thunderstorms that created the firestorm that erupted in Colorado Springs neighborhoods on Tuesday, fire crews and officials said."

The Gazette also says that while there have been no reports of injuries or deaths, "police and fire scanners were filled with tales of multiple homes burning at a time."

According to the newspaper, last night "firefighters went into 'triage' mode, going past homes that were beyond help to save those that could be saved."

The Denver Postsays the three-day-old wildfire "erupted with catastrophic fury. ... An apocalyptic plume of smoke covered Colorado's second-largest city as thousands of people forced to evacuate clogged Interstate 25 at rush hour trying to get to their homes or to get out of the way. By nightfall, roughly 32,000 people left their homes, chased out by the flames."

"It was like looking at the worst movie set you could imagine," Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) said after flying over the 9-square-mile fire late Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. "It's almost surreal. You look at that, and it's like nothing I've seen before."

Fort Collins isn't the only place in Colorado in the path of flames. Conditions are dry across much of the state. Tens of thousands of residents, including those in Colorado Springs, have been forced to flee. And as the Post writes:

"At the same time the fire in Colorado Springs was erupting with a new fury, a lightning-sparked wildfire in Boulder blew up in the tinder-dry forest above the city. The Flagstaff fire grew in minutes to an estimated 228 acres and sent a smoke column over Boulder Valley. Twenty-six homes were evacuated, and residents of more than 2,000 homes in south Boulder were told to be ready to flee as the fire crept one ridge away from coming into the city."

By later today, the Denver Post reports, "fire officials expect to have more than 1,000 firefighters battling the blaze" that's threatening Colorado Springs.

Update at 9:20 a.m. ET: The official updates from the federal interagency task force about the fire threatening Colorado Springs is online here. In the box about the fire's growth potential there's one ominous word: "extreme."